37
37
37
Ingredients for a New Synthesis," Entropy, Information and Evolution: New
Perspectives on Physical and Biological Evolution, pp. 160-163.
46. Don't console yourself with the notion that Neanderthal were too primitive to
mark the loss. Neanderthal had an aesthetic sensibility--they buried their dead with
flowers, and used ocher dyes. (Richard E. Leakey and Roger Lewin, People of the
Lake, p. 154.) They carried out elaborate rituals, crafted tools and weapons,
cooked their food, and made fur clothing with bone needles. (J.B. Birdsell, Human
Evolution: An Introduction to the New Physical Anthropology, Rand McNally & Co,
Chicago, 1972, pp. 282-283.) Archaeologists in China have even found the
remains of Neanderthal houses. (E.N. Anderson, The Food of China, p. 9.)
47. Lest you think that man in the paradisal state that preceded civilization would
never have stooped to the barbarity of massacring a near cousin, consider the case
of the chimpanzee. When a hungry chimp is looking for a juicy bundle of meat, he
is quite likely to satisfy his craving by murdering another primate. Jane Goodall
describes in glowing detail how one carnivorous chimp managed to supply himself
with cold cuts by creeping up on a group of baboons, grabbing a juvenile, swinging
the victim over his head, then thwacking its skull on the rocks until it was dead.
This particular chimpanzee killer was not the only one who enjoyed a bit of baboon
flesh. His troop-mates crowded around him all day begging for a taste. They even
avidly licked the leaves on which tiny drops of blood had fallen. Goodall's chimps,
in fact, feasted fairly frequently on slaughtered baboons and colobus monkeys.
(Jane Goodall, In The Shadow of Man, p. 200. Groups of chimpanzees also hunt
colobus monkeys: see Christophe Boesch and Hedwige Boesch-Acherman, "Dim
<< < GO > >>
37
37
37
Ingredients for a New Synthesis," Entropy, Information and Evolution: New
Perspectives on Physical and Biological Evolution, pp. 160-163.
46. Don't console yourself with the notion that Neanderthal were too primitive to
mark the loss. Neanderthal had an aesthetic sensibility--they buried their dead with
flowers, and used ocher dyes. (Richard E. Leakey and Roger Lewin, People of the
Lake, p. 154.) They carried out elaborate rituals, crafted tools and weapons,
cooked their food, and made fur clothing with bone needles. (J.B. Birdsell, Human
Evolution: An Introduction to the New Physical Anthropology, Rand McNally & Co,
Chicago, 1972, pp. 282-283.) Archaeologists in China have even found the
remains of Neanderthal houses. (E.N. Anderson, The Food of China, p. 9.)
47. Lest you think that man in the paradisal state that preceded civilization would
never have stooped to the barbarity of massacring a near cousin, consider the case
of the chimpanzee. When a hungry chimp is looking for a juicy bundle of meat, he
is quite likely to satisfy his craving by murdering another primate. Jane Goodall
describes in glowing detail how one carnivorous chimp managed to supply himself
with cold cuts by creeping up on a group of baboons, grabbing a juvenile, swinging
the victim over his head, then thwacking its skull on the rocks until it was dead.
This particular chimpanzee killer was not the only one who enjoyed a bit of baboon
flesh. His troop-mates crowded around him all day begging for a taste. They even
avidly licked the leaves on which tiny drops of blood had fallen. Goodall's chimps,
in fact, feasted fairly frequently on slaughtered baboons and colobus monkeys.
(Jane Goodall, In The Shadow of Man, p. 200. Groups of chimpanzees also hunt
colobus monkeys: see Christophe Boesch and Hedwige Boesch-Acherman, "Dim
<< < GO > >>